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Koreas can't break nuclear impasse
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-19 20:13
SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas concluded their first face-to-face talks
in 10 months Thursday without making any progress on the impasse over the
North's nuclear program, although they did agree to hold Cabinet-level talks
next month.
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South
Korean Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo, right, walks with his North
Korean counterpart Kim Man Gil before their meeting at the North Korean
border city of Kaesong, Thursday, May 19, 2005.
[AP] | The agreement was announced as word emerged of a secret
meeting last week between U.S. and North Korean officials. The focus of both
efforts was to get Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation talks on getting it to abandon
its nuclear program, but the reclusive communist country — which regularly uses
brinksmanship to wring aid from the West — clearly resisted any public
commitment.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said American officials met with North Korean
officials in New York last week.
"This channel is used to convey messages about U.S. policy, not to
negotiate," an embassy official said on condition of anonymity.
The meeting was first reported in The Boston Globe on Thursday.
A statement issued after the two-day meeting between the Koreas ended
Thursday said both nations agreed to work for peace on the Korean Peninsula. It
said a follow-up Cabinet-level meeting would be held June 21-24 in Seoul, and
South Korea would begin providing 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North
starting May 21.
Seoul also will send a delegation, led by a government minister, to Pyongyang
in June for the fifth anniversary of a historic summit between the two rivals.
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